Eagan is a remarkable writer and I have enjoyed the three novels I have read by her, most recently Manhattan Beach. Eagan’s earlier novel A Visit From the Goon Squad won the 2011 Pulitzer, and The Candy House revisits many of the characters from Goon Squad. Here is my book review The Candy House by Jennifer Eagan.
The Candy House
As I mentioned in last week’s book review The Immortal King Rao, The Candy House is eerily similar in it’s plot. Like King Rao, The Candy House takes us into the not too distant future, a time where living on planet earth has become all about the internet, and how everything we think say and do is connected to an online presence. Not so difficult to imagine.
As The Candy House begins we meet the brilliant Bix Bouton, a tech demigod who creates a new technology known as “Own Your Own Unconscious”. This technology is a sharing tool, where you can share every memory you have ever had and access all the memories of other people. Just like The Immortal King Rao.
The story follows multiple characters all looking for something in this world; love, hope, stability, companionship, privacy and even family. Many characters reappear from A Visit From the Goon Squad, but the reader of The Candy House won’t need to have read Goon Squad to follow the story.
And what a story it is. An imaginative, inventive and sometimes disturbing plot. Eagan’s writing style is phenomenal as she guides you through the character development sometimes writing in first person, sometimes not. One chapter presented all in Tweets. Another all in letters of correspondence. She is one of the preeminent writers of the day and The Candy House is masterful.
*****Five Stars for The Candy House. A perfect summer read. Thanks for reading my book review The Candy House by Jennifer Eagan.
Read last week’s review of The Immortal King Rao.
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